Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ The Price You Pay ❯ Chapter Thirty-Five ( Chapter 35 )

Insert standard disclaimer here.

 

The Price You Pay: Chapter Thirty-Five

 

A month and a half passed by with a relative sort of calmness. The nobles, mobilized by the determination they'd seen in their King's eyes, were quick to spread word of the oncoming threat. What few Elites weren't already enlisted in the King's Guard were sent to the palace to begin formal training as officers. Unfortunately, though many of the Elites were high born and maintained prestigious positions on Vegeta-sei, allowing these powerful warriors off-world for missions that required kis barely above 300 seemed like an unnecessary waste. This meant that while the Elites were the strongest on the planet, their knowledge of actually leading troops was at a minimum.

 

Nappa was one of the first to volunteer his services which was more that a shock to Vegeta. Usually it took an abnormal amount of force to get the headstrong Commander to do anything of importance. Like the simple task of tracking down the source of all the transmissions to Freeza. He'd discovered a few leads, but nothing notable. Vegeta assumed his willingness to be involved was to remain in the Saiya-jin no Ou's good graces. Vegeta didn't blame him.

 

Bulma seemed a lot happier now that Vegeta was back to normal. Mostly she could be found tinkering around in the engineering department with other scientists of various species. The most recent development had been making the battle armor she was so fond of even more resistant to ki blasts and other sorts of threats. Vegeta could remember walking her to the science ward and handing her, with that trademark smirk of his, the specs for the armor she'd been so enamored with for years.

 

“Guess there's at least one subject where Saiya-jin scientists outsmart you,” said Vegeta in a voice that was as close to teasing as the Saiya-jin no Ou could get. Glaring at him, she grabbed the specs from between his gloved fingers.

 

“Thank you,” she bit out sarcastically as her eyes washed over the data.

 

Ever since then her days had been occupied by computers and strange materials that Vegeta cared little for. While he was required to have extensive knowledge of the sciences, he'd never partaken in them for pleasure unless they were of immense importance to him. The gravity chamber the onna had created and the device he'd been working on in secret were perfect examples. His fingers itched with the memory of his creation lying flat in his hand.

 

If the onna ever found out…

 

Within a week after his announcement about Vegeta-sei's imminent doom, Bulma was working with the Saiya-jin technicians to build extensive gravity chambers for some of the more Elite Saiya-jins, including Vegeta, to train in. It bordered on ridiculous watching the looks on the Saiya-jins' faces as Bulma ordered the engineers around and drew complicated technical maps to aid in the construction. Although considered frail and weak to most of the Saiya-jins on the planet, she was most definitely not stupid.

 

The two of them had discussed their new home on Vegeta-sei many times as Bulma tried to figure out how they ended up in an alternate dimension. She'd never heard of a technology that could move living creatures through space time.

 

But not belonging in this dimension didn't change the fact that Freeza was on the way nor did it change the fact that they were still learning to deal with one another. Sharing close quarters had at first been a struggle as both felt suffocated by the others' continual presence. The stress of the last month's happenings caused both of them, especially Bulma, to be overly emotional.

 

Bulma was lucky, in Vegeta's opinion. Humans had very underdeveloped telepathic skills and while she was able to merely ignore Vegeta's vocalized random bits of edginess and anger, Vegeta could not get her every waking thought out of his head. As a Saiya-jin, he'd learned at a young age how to put up mental walls. Some of the most horrific forms of torture involved not bodily harm but rather mental probing. He'd learned that first hand as a servant of Freeza. But no matter how he tried to close his mind to her, there was some part of him that was always open especially over the course of the last few weeks.

 

There was something different about the onna lately anyway, Vegeta had noticed. While she did seem to be enjoying herself, she was glowing in a disconcerting way. She was positively radiant and Vegeta could swear her life force was even stronger than it had been when they were together back on Chickyuu. If her witty comebacks and revamped argumentative nature weren't any indication, then her new exaggerated vigor for all things technical certainly drove the point home. He welcomed the change.

 

He smiled to himself in a very unSaiya-jin manner and shook his head. While they may have been separated during the day, nothing delighted him more than their verbal bouts when they were finally together in the evenings. On more than one occasion, Bulma had threatened to spend the night in her own room but her threats were very soon turned to bluffs. She never made it more than a few steps toward the door before turning on Vegeta and barraging him with another slew of insults. These incidents usually ended without a winner. But rarely did a night pass when the two weren't physically fulfilled.

 

He had to give his little Chickyuu-jin credit where credit was due. She was a feisty one and Vegeta wondered if he would ever grow tired of their constant squabbling. Zarbon was the only other person he'd ever allowed such vocal liberties with him and those were most certainly never in public. Bulma seemed to delight herself in publicly berating him. The victorious look on her face never failed to remind him of their first encounters on Chickyuu after the Namek scuffle. Her eyes always flashed with a delighted sort of victory every time Vegeta minutely lost his composure.

 

If only she had formidable ki.

 

He couldn't remember how many times he'd thought that since he'd met her.

 

The training regiments were going well and from what Vegeta could tell by his constant inspection of the troops, Zarbon's influence was beginning to show. Having worked for Lord Freeza for more years than Vegeta had in his own dimension, Zarbon knew how to train even the densest of Saiya-jins how to handle run ins with adversaries much stronger than themselves. Vegeta frequented the training fields and often partook in training some of the more skilled Elites. Despite the fact that most of the Saiya-jins were already awed by Vegeta's impressive and legendary ki, they now realized that their King was a battle worthy leader as well.

 

“Bulma seems to be doing very well,” carefully remarked Zarbon one afternoon as they were observing a group of elites doing their daily drills.

 

“She has been spending the majority of her time improving some technical aspects of our military,” replied the King with the briefest hint of a question in his voice. He always did seem to know when Zarbon was trying to get at more than he let on.

 

“Have you noticed anything different about her lately?” he asked a bit more probingly. “Some of the technicians down in the engineering ward mentioned something about her being particularly… moody over the past few weeks.” Vegeta grunted nasally.

 

“She's a human Zarbon, they practically breed being emotional into their culture.” His voice was dismissive. He didn't understand why Zarbon was so concerned with Bulma's personal matters.

 

Vegeta gave his reptilian confidant a sharp look out of the corner of his eye before returning his attention to the field. After a few minutes of awkward silence, Vegeta sighed. “Well, what is it then?”

 

“Vegeta, have you two been being careful?” His voice was hesitant and Vegeta's jaw dropped as he turned to look at Zarbon. If the tone the creature used was implying what he thought it was… Vegeta looked like he'd been slapped across the face.

 

“Our… personal relations… are of no concern to you!” replied Vegeta in a shocked and exasperated voice.

 

“Of course, my King,” was his respectful, if a bit testy, response. “It's just with Freeza arriving shortly…” He let the comment fade, knowing he was on dangerous grounds. “Don't you remember what happened the last time a Saiya-jin King took a mate? What Freeza did to your father—“

 

“Have you gone completely insane, Zarbon, or do you just wish for death to meet you decades before your time?” growled the King in a dangerous voice. Some part of him knew that Zarbon had every right to be concerned. Given Bulma's importance to the fulfillment of the prophecy and to Vegeta-sei's victory, her physical state constantly needed to be considered. Vegeta's posture relaxed a little as he released the breath he'd been holding in irritation. Zarbon relaxed as well.

 

“I'll look into it,” said Vegeta's hard voice as he turned his attention back to the troops. After spending an adequate amount of time seeing over their progress, Vegeta decided it was time he left and dealt with more disconcerting matters.

 

This is just what I need.

 

Thought Vegeta sarcastically as he stomped towards the palace and the engineering hanger Bulma was sure to be near.

 

~~~~~~~<(((((|||)))))>~~~~~~~

 

The progress they'd made on the Saiya-jin armor was substantial, considered Bulma as she stared at her handiwork with an appraising eye. After focusing her time for a week or so on designing and building gravity chambers that would function properly under Vegeta-sei's stifling 10 gs, Bulma had finally had the opportunity to indulge in her pet project of several years. Vegeta had been the one who introduced her to the scientists responsible for modifying the armor design and Bulma couldn't help but feel touched that he'd remembered her interest in the strange material.

 

Inspecting the porous quality of a piece of fiber under her low power microscope, Bulma wondered why it suddenly felt so warm in the room. Someone had been toying with the environmental controls for the last few days and Bulma was beginning to be annoyed by their lack of respect for her comfort. Vegeta-sei's climate was already warm enough without the air conditioning constantly being turned off.

 

She rose from her chair to go check the climate controls on her own. There was no way she was going to ask some idiot Saiya-jin who didn't know the difference between hot and cold to adjust the controls anymore. As of late, whenever she'd told one of the men to change the climate controls back they'd just walked to the wall panel, looked at the settings, and turned back to Bulma with confusion. She'd just about had it.

 

After fidgeting with the wall control panel for about five minutes, Bulma decided that the adjustments were satisfactory and turned to make her way back to her seat.

 

“You know, onna, working in here without any of my guards to protect you probably isn't the wisest of ideas,” came a familiar voice from the corner nearest the door.

 

“Trying to sneak up on me again, Vegeta no Ou?” asked Bulma dismissively as she sat back down in her lab chair. In the past few weeks their link had become so strong that Bulma was able to sense his presence from miles away making his `surprise' visit to the engineering department much less disruptive than it used to be. Vegeta grinned evilly.

 

“Now why would I do something like that?” asked Vegeta with mock innocence in his voice. He used to love sneaking up on her. It had been more difficult with guards assigned to watch over her during the day, but Vegeta found the effort worthwhile. The Saiya-jin no Ou walked slowly over to the lab table where Bulma was sitting and fastidiously studying some specimen she was holding between tweezers. He placed his left hand on the table close to where Bulma sat and positioned himself so that his mouth was right next to her ear. Placing his free hand on her right shoulder, Vegeta inhaled deeply seeking to discover whatever was different about her as Zarbon had suggested.

 

Putting down her work and turning to face him, Bulma looked at Vegeta quizzically.

 

“Something wrong?” asked Bulma carefully. She wasn't quite sure what the deal was, Vegeta had never really been the sort for public displays of affection. Even if there was no one else in the room, Vegeta usually did little more than rest a hand on her shoulder or, even more occasionally, brush the hair from her eyes.

 

Vegeta's eyes still glowed the way they always had since the energy transfer and from such close proximity Bulma could tell just how amazingly bright his typically dark Saiya-jin eyes really were. His look intensified.

 

“Your scent, it's different,” said Vegeta simply but with some sort of connotation Bulma couldn't quite place.

 

“I didn't change my shampoo or anything…” Bulma trailed off. She still wasn't quite sure where Vegeta was going with this. Vegeta grunted at that.

 

“I can't believe I've figured this out before you have, onna,” said an exasperated Saiya-jin no Ou as he stood up straight and crossed his arms.

 

What am I going to do?

 

Thought Vegeta without bothering to put up as strong of a mental barrier as he should have. Weak as her telepathic abilities may have been, Vegeta sometimes failed to remember that she could pick up on the majority of his thoughts if he wasn't careful.

 

“Do about what?” asked Bulma with budding irritation in her voice. She did not like being disrupted from her work, even by Vegeta, and touching as it was that he had come to see her, he was starting to weird her out.

 

“Have you been consistent with your contraceptive hormone therapy?” asked Vegeta in an accusing manner. He was quite frazzled and standing in that impersonal cross-armed I-am-the-Saiya-jin-no-Ou stance that was characteristic of him when he was trying to pretend not to be bothered by something. Bulma's heart jumped a beat.

 

“Of course I have, Vegeta no Ou,” she replied a bit defensively. “Can we please take this discussion somewhere else?” she asked looking nervously at the door and the small recording device located above it. There was all kinds of surveillance hooked up in the room and she didn't particularly feel like having their personal matters broadcast to everyone in the communications department. Vegeta did not bother to hide his chagrin at their talk being delayed but complied with a pained sounding, “Whatever.”

 

Their walk to the royal wing of the palace was surprisingly quiet and many of the guards seemed worried about the lack of heated conversation typically exchanged by the two. Most stood at attention with their hands behind their backs and their faces perfect masks of composure, but Bulma had the distinct feeling that after she and the Saiya-jin King passed by, the guards were exchanging nervous looks with one another.

 

After making it to the safety and isolation of their own quarters, Bulma turned to Vegeta.

 

“Now what exactly is all of this about?” she demanded with urgency in her voice.

 

“You,” he said as he pointed an accusatory finger at her, “are with child.” Bulma went to open her mouth, prepared to shoot down whatever nonsense she was sure Vegeta was about to spout, and then abruptly closed it. Vegeta watched as the Chickyuu-jin female turned all colors of speechless and briefly wondered if all Chickyuu-jin were capable of such absurd changes in facial expression.

 

“What?!” she finally managed to make out in a harsh whisper.

 

“You heard me correctly, onna.” Vegeta's voice was reproachful and Bulma couldn't help but wonder how exactly he felt about what he was implying. There were a few more minutes of shocked silence before Bulma managed to gather her wits. This time there was no question what her sentiments were.

 

“I told you I didn't know how the Saiya-jin equivalent of birth control was going to affect my system, Vegeta!” Bulma wailed. “Why couldn't you just listen to me? How could we have been so careless?” She was practically hysterical. “Are you one hundred percent positive?” she demanded while glaring at him.

 

“There is an unmistakable presence about you, onna,” said Vegeta evenly. If he was upset about the situation, Bulma had no way of telling. He seemed to be the image of composure.

 

“How long have you known? Kami, my cycle is only a few days late as it is,” she trailed off.

 

“I started noticing subtle changes to your physical state a few weeks ago but failed to attribute them to such an untimely occurrence,” stated Vegeta with a little bit more resentment in his voice than Bulma cared to hear.

 

“Well, I apologize for contributing to such an `untimely occurrence,' Vegeta, but I don't remember you complaining when this `occurrence' must have taken place,” she spat at him perhaps with a bit more venom than she had intended.

 

“Watch your tone, Bulma,” said Vegeta in a voice promising retribution. She was always good at breaking down what little composure he'd spent so much time building up.

 

“I will not `watch my tone' while you call my being pregnant an `untimely occurrence.' You have contributed to this as much as I have,” she pointed out.

 

Yes, I most certainly have. Over and over and over again.

 

Thought the Saiya-jin no Ou with a smirk. Bulma's face flushed as Vegeta failed, once again, to keep his thoughts private.

 

“I'm not going to pretend that I am not concerned about how your conceiving will play into the most current developments and the prophecy,” said Vegeta sobering up in order to prevent another outlandish outburst from his mate. “I do not see how keeping the brat could be advantageous given our current situation,” said Vegeta in an impersonal and logical brute Saiya-jin sort of voice.

 

Bulma's eyes widened as she protectively placed her hands over her abdomen as if the act alone would protect the developing life within her.

 

“Vegeta, I am not aborting the baby,” she said sternly as if she were offended.

 

“Onna,” said Vegeta in an equally stern tone, “I do not intend on rearing children for at least another decade.” This seemed to be a subject Vegeta had not been prepared to compromise on.

 

“I don't care what you intended, Vegeta. I will not kill something that you and I created just because you'd rather face your responsibilities in another ten years.” Vegeta stared at his mate, aghast. Why were all Chickyuu-jin so attached to their young? It wasn't like they couldn't have more. He frowned.

 

“This is not up for discussion, Bulma,” said Vegeta, using her name to emphasize the importance of his point. Bulma hated when Vegeta acted like he knew better than her. As if a race that sent their newborn children off alone to purge planets at birth could really know anything about raising children.

 

“You're right, it's not,” she said with a surprising amount of strength in her voice and stormed out of the room.

 

The Saiya-jin guards that had been standing in position outside of the King's chambers watched on, in an uncomfortable way, as Bulma stormed out of the large doors.

 

“What are you looking at?” she spat at them when their eyes met hers. The two men watched in shock as she stomped her way to her own chambers and slammed the doors.

 

From behind the doors the men could hear the King swearing but decided to dismiss the strange events. It was not their place to pry into their King's relationship with his mate. Besides, they'd learned from observation that fights between the two never lasted that long, right?